I’ve been through some unique experiences in ministry. In the first church I was part of, our founding pastor of seven years announced he was resigning to become a missionary to Germany. The church had no official membership and was not ready for the founding pastor to leave. The next church I served at was recovering from a horrific death. Just before I arrived the senior pastor had been murdered inside his office at the church. At my current church, the founding pastor of nine years abruptly left one year earlier than planned. (One day I received a text message saying he was moving up the timeline that had been in place for almost two years).
Those experiences have taught me how to navigate crisis, change, and uncertainty within a church. In their book, Ministering to the Mourning, Warren and David Wiersbe write, “It’s a fundamental law of life that a crisis will bring out either the very best in people or the very worst, depending on their character.”[1] When a crisis happens, you can’t change the staff you have at your church. You’ve got who you’ve got. But, there are four things you can do to help the staff and volunteers thrive through the crisis. I call these four keys that unlock an effective staff as you navigate crisis. Let’s look at the first key, which focuses on the staff’s family.
Family Care Must Come First
Staff members cannot focus on ministry if they are concerned about their family. And by family, it’s not just a spouse and kids that need to be the first priority. It can be parents, grandparents, or grandchildren that staff worry about above the needs of the church.
Family is a gift
In Psalms, we read that “Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him” (Pss 127:3).[2] There is a natural protective desire we all have. We see that protective desire in Noah’s life who “in holy fear built an ark to save his family” (Hebrews 11:7). We know that children (and family) are a heritage that God has given us.
You might object, “Now is a crisis time. We need our staff and volunteers now more than ever! Especially our elders/pastors. We need them to focus on the church!” Yes, during a crisis, you need your staff and volunteers more than you ever have in the past. But, if those deeply needed staff are worried about their family, they can never focus on the ministry of the church.
Family needs trump church needs
Give staff time off to check on their families. This might be an afternoon to do a few things for their family. Or a day or two to check on parents in a nearby state.
Perhaps the staff member can still work, but those normal hours need to be from home. Or, because of kids, the staff member needs to work early in the morning, late at night, or midday while the kids are napping. Perhaps finances are an issue. Get the staff member a gift card to Wal-Mart or a grocery store so he or she can get the basic family items that are needed. Small gestures like that make a big difference.
Family is more important for good staff
Why such an emphasis on caring for family? When you selected your pastors/elders for ministry in your church, you selected them with the qualifications of 1 Timothy 3:4-5, “He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?)”[3]
If you selected a pastor (or any other staff) correctly, then he will take care of his family before taking care of the church. So, let him care for his family. Once he knows his family is safe, then he can care for the church and staff. And that starts with the mission of the church.
Focus on Your Mission, Not Your Methods
Crisis is when you blow the dust off your church’s mission statement. Remember when you spent days at a retreat with your staff to craft that mission? If not you, then someone before you dripped sweat and tears on that mission statement to create it. Crisis is when you need that mission most because you must focus on what is most important for the church.
What is a mission statement?
Mission statements are “declarations of action”[4] They describe what you are supposed to be doing and should be the marching orders for your church.
What’s the mission of the church?
Bill Tenny-Brittian reminds churches in his consulting that their mission statement is to “make disciples of Jesus Christ.”[5] You already know the mission of the church, but here’s a reminder.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:19-20)[6]
Those two verses are the essence of every church’s mission.
Why focus on mission?
Why all this focus on mission of the church and ministry philosophy? “It’s a crisis” you say, “We need to do something!” In Aubrey Malphurs’s book, Advanced Strategic Planning, he outlines nine ways a mission affects the church. A mission:
- dictates the ministry’s direction
- defines the ministry’s function
- focuses the ministry’s future
- provides guidelines for decision making
- inspires ministry unity
- shapes the strategy
- enhances ministry effectiveness
- ensures an enduring organization
- facilitates evaluation[7]
As you can see, your mission affects every aspect of your staff and your ministry. With a crisis pulling everyone in different directions, focusing on a mission statement brings everyone back together.
How to implement the mission
The hot topic among churches now is how to do virtual church. Whether by choice or by force, all churches have faced the issue. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Vimeo, etc. are among the many options.
With those options come dissension about which one is the best method. During a crisis, don’t worry about methods, focus on mission. If you think Facebook Live is better than YouTube, then go with it. If your pastor doesn’t want to use Instagram and has never heard of it, then don’t push the method, focus on the technology he will use and use it to accomplish your mission.
During a crisis, anything that helps you deliver your mission is your friend, not your foe. Your mission brings people together and having a close-knit staff/volunteers is the third key you need during a crisis.
Fasten Yourselves Together
During chaotic times you must stick close together. As a staff, this is the time to come together, not distance apart. The most difficult part of the COVID-19 crisis is that it forces everyone to isolate. We cannot meet in the same room, shake hands, pat each other on the back for a job well done, or hug in loving fellowship. If you are not careful, that forced distance can easily creep into relationships.
The Bible’s team
Remember that you are on the same team. God wants us to be unified, but God knows we naturally drift apart through conflict. That’s why he gave so many reminders for us to stick together.
God tells us to have unity.
- I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. (1 Cor 1:10)
- Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. (Rom 14:19)
- How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! (Pss 133:1)
God tells us we have the same Spirit:
- Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. (Eph 4:3)
- Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel. (Phil 1:27)
God tells us we are supposed to have one mind together:
- Then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. (Phil 2:2)
- Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. (1 Peter 3:8)
As Christians, we should be unified because we have the same Spirit and are supposed to have one mind. During a crisis, we must remember that we are on the same team.
Stay close with virtual video meetings
Knowing we need to fasten ourselves as the Christian community is more difficult than doing it. Here are practical tips that can help you.
Require video conferencing together — emphasis on the “video” part. There’s a special dynamic that occurs when you can see each other’s faces and interact. Extensive email and text messages over time cause strife in relationships. It’s easier to be rude in a text message or email because you don’t have to say what you are thinking to a person’s face. It’s also easy for people to misinterpret what is said or to read into what is said when that wasn’t meant.
I had to call my senior pastor once to clarify what was said and meant. The senior pastor, youth pastor, and I were on text messages. The senior pastor misinterpreted what the youth pastor and I were saying and responded, “Well, since you guys have a no-growth mindset, I’m going to go start a different church somewhere else.” Whoa! Hold on boss! Neither of us had indicated we had a no-growth mindset. He was misinterpreting what we were saying about how many services to add to our Easter weekend. All of that because of two text messages.
There is something special about being together that you can’t substitute. The author of Hebrews tells us, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:24-25). Get together even if each person is at home.
Keep your meetings professional even when everyone meets from an informal location such as their home. Remind people to dress professionally, style hair, put on makeup, brush teeth, etc. Lovingly inform them it’s still a professional meeting. (One person told me of a recent video call among a boss and his employees in which one woman was making her bed, another was putting on makeup, and another wore her bathrobe.)
During times of crisis, you need to meet, even if it has to be a virtual video meeting. Use Zoom, Google Hangout, Facetime, or any other app (remember, it’s not the method it is the mission). Don’t hesitate to pay for an app or software that will help you all meet. If you were meeting at your church, there would have been money spent on lights, for a table to sit at, chairs to sit in, custodial workers to clean the room, snacks, drinks, and climate control to keep the room at a comfortable temperature. With those normal expenses to meet together in a room, it’s not a big deal to spend $25 a month on a virtual video conferencing software. It’ll be worth it.
Virtual video conferences won’t prevent conflict among your staff and volunteers. You’ll need another key to unlock that area.
Forgive and Give Grace
Do you remember doing group projects in school? The teacher would put four or five students together in a group, and you all had to work together on a project and received a group grade. There was always one person that didn’t show up for group meetings or do the work you gave him, but he still received the same grade as everyone else.
Doing ministry in a crisis is like that group project. There will be staff that don’t show up to your virtual meetings and aren’t committed to the mission, but they are part of your staff and seen as part of the church.
In normal, everyday ministry, staff must give grace and forgiveness to each other. Times of crisis require your grace muscles to be exercised like never before.
Bible Verses required for doing ministry
There are two verses I have read repeatedly that have helped me give grace to other staff members. They helped me forgive past failures of staff and the hurtful things they have said or done.
- Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. (Ephesians 4:2)
- Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Ephesians 4:32)
For several years I wrote those two verses on the pages of my staff meeting journal. When faced with a struggle I had with another staff member, I would glance down and read those verses quietly to myself. Sometimes I would highlight them when I needed to apply them. And after highlighting them sometimes, I would underline them with a pen, further trying to get myself to apply them.
Grace
One of my favorite passages that explains grace was written by Paul to Titus,
But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4-7)
Paul tells Titus that people are saved not because of any righteous things they have done. Instead, they are saved because of God’s grace.
It is easy to slip into the mindset of “we’re doing ministry, and if you want to work here, you need to do a good job.” While there might be certain expectations that staff must uphold, remember that if our salvation is not based on the things we have done, perhaps our participation on a church staff shouldn’t be either.
I appreciate Warren Wiersbe’s description of grace, “God in His mercy doesn’t give us what we do deserve but in His grace gives us what we don’t deserve”[8] In a crisis you have to give the people you work with what they don’t deserve: grace. They might have wronged you or fumbled a project, but grace is needed during a crisis.
Forgiveness
Forgiveness isn’t easy, but it’s necessary. Church staff need to learn to forgive each other. And during a crisis, the need for forgiveness increases because everyone is under more pressure and is more stressed. Mistakes get amplified, words can carry more meaning, and we can take things personally that we normally wouldn’t let affect us. In his book, The Making of a Disciple, Keith Phillips writes, “Forgiving others is a hallmark of the Christian faith.”[9] As the hallmark of our faith, church staff need to model and practice forgiveness for others. We are professional forgivers!
Grace is risky
“But Christopher, you don’t know who I work with!” Here’s the important thing about grace: you give it when it’s not deserved. In Seminary, I was taught that grace is “God’s unmerited favor.” Catch that important word in the middle—unmerited—it’s not something that another person deserves. And because of that, Max Lucado says that “grace is risky.”[10] People might abuse grace, but that’s okay because it is still something you give regardless if someone deserves it or not. If you’ve done ministry for any length of time, you learn that grace is required.
Doing Church in Crisis
I’ve been in a few churches navigating crisis and conflict. The churches survived and thrived because we knew that a crisis required change. These four keys unlock an effective staff in crisis: family must be a priority, focus on mission, not methods, fasten the staff together, also forgive and give grace. Those four keys will unlock your church from the damage that a crisis can cause and open the door to strengthen your staff, volunteers, and church during these difficult times.
[1] Warren and David Wiersbe, Ministering to the Mourning (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2006), 145.
[2] All Bible translations are the NIV (2011) with italics added by author.
[3] We also see the other end of this qualification later in Paul’s letter to Timothy, “Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Timothy 5:8).
[4] Gary Collins, Christian Coaching, 2nd ed.(Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2009), 173.
[5] Bill Tenny-Brittian, “Why Most Church Mission Statements Aren’t Effective” on The Effective Church Group. https://effectivechurch.com/why-most-church-mission-statements-arent-effective/ Accessed April 9, 20202
[6] Also see Mark 16:15; Luke 24:45-49; and Acts 1:8.
[7] Aubrey Malphurs, Advanced Strategic Planning, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2013), 106-109.
[8] Warren Wiersbe, The Delights and Disciplines of Bible Study (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2018), 191.
[9] Keith Phillips, The Making of a Disciple (Old Tappan, NJ: Revell, 1981), 63.
[10] Max Lucado, In the Grip of Grace (Dallas, TX: Word Publishing, 1996), 81.